Author: Erasmo Calzadilla

Trivial, it was an incident of no importance; much worse things happen in the world. Yet the matter is that this humiliation of personal integrity is constant, wherever you go. The result is a feeling of defenseless in the face of the machinery, which I swear doesn’t generate anything good for this country.

What is astonishing (if not scandalous) is that even while having “justice” on their side, and proceeding to attack somebody who is far removed from power, this individual is not even brave enough to sign the note with their real name.

As of a few months ago, we’ve been seeing positive changes in everything related to education. From the time of the Special Period [the crisis years beginning in the early 1990s], the Ministry of Education seemed to have been run by a bureaucrat who was not only incompetent but also blind and deaf.

I’ve been traveling around various towns and talking with people over the past several days. What I’ve found is that although a few months have passed since the expulsions from key government posts of two relatively young leaders, Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque, this is an issue that remains alive in people’s consciousness.

About 50 years ago, Pons was little more than a poor village situated where two roads crossed. With the Revolution, the town received a sawmill and several manufacturing industries, which brought some life and electricity to a land of hacienda owners and campesinos well adapted to their environment.

Those who turn up at these “hitchhiking” points make themselves as comfortable as they can in the shade. They tend to strike up conversations, which seem more like chats between friends and close relatives than with people who only gather occasionally to catch a lift.

Recently, US politics were once again featured in the Cuban press. The popularity of President Obama was reported to have declined considerably among Americans since his election, at least according to a survey by a respected public opinion firm. If there are agencies in our country authorized to conduct this kind of work, neither I nor the people around me are aware of any of them.

Cuba is a relatively peaceful place, at least compared to other countries in the region. There have yet to appear substantial numbers of gangs, drug traffickers or street weapons; there are no guerrilla armies or paramilitary forces.

Now, as each day passes I’m adapting better and thinking less of flight. Every day it hurts a little more to think about leaving my grandmother, knowing that since her health has begun to decline she’s going to need me that much more.

Someone commented on my blog that with an empire breathing down our necks it was very naive to ask that all of the backroom political dealings be made public, thus giving the enemy more fuel to do greater damage.